As Election Day nears, Republicans and Democrats are stepping up efforts to court black voters.

WASHINGTON – With less than three months until Election Day, Republicans and Democrats are stepping up efforts to court black voters — particularly in the South, where some of the country’s most competitive races are underway.

“If we work like dogs day in, day out — instead of getting 6 percent of black votes across the country ... we can do a lot better,” Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, told a group of black journalists this month. “That’s our goal.”

Democrats, meanwhile, say they’re on a mission to gin up their base for the critical midterm elections that could determine control of the Senate. Traditionally, blacks tend to vote for Democratic candidates.

“We need to be out there early and often and constantly,” said Mo Elleithee, communications director for the Democratic National Committee. “We can’t ever become a party that just shows up and knocks on your door every four years.”

Both parties have set up field offices in key states, hired staffers to target minority voters and created armies of volunteers to knock on doors and urge voters to show up at the polls. In some competitive battlegrounds like Louisiana, the effort started last year.

But Howard University political scientist Lorenzo Morris called the efforts “symbolic outreach” unlikely to spur high black voter turnout during this nonpresidential election.

“I don’t think the effort has anything more than what I would call a material interest, and it’s a naïve one,” Morris said.

Still, he said, Democrats and Republicans “need those numbers.”

Morris and other political experts say black voter turnout could be a major factor in races in the South, particularly in Louisiana, where Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu is fending off a challenge from her leading Republican opponent, Rep. Bill Cassidy.

Republicans said they ramped up outreach efforts after the 2012 elections and this year will focus on 15 states, including Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and North Carolina. They say they’ve solicited help from community leaders, knocked on doors in black neighborhoods and visited barbershops, beauty parlors and local churches.

“The pastors may not be Republicans but are welcoming because they’re saying, ‘Folks deserve to hear both sides,’ ” said Tara Wall, a senior strategist for the RNC.

Republicans say over the last year they have made 100,000 contacts with black voters. For example, they set up GOP chapters at historically black colleges and universities, such as Morehouse College in Atlanta.

“There’s political activity taking place every day,” said Orlando Watson, RNC’s communications director for black media. “Our mission is to have a presence 24/7, 365 days a year.”

Wall said many blacks in the South tend to be more fiscally and socially conservative, and Republicans aim to connect with them on such issues as education.

“Democrats do not have a hold on black voters. They don’t own the black vote,” she said. “They take them for granted. ... They use divisive scare tactics. They use dog-whistle terms to gin up their base.”

Democrats say they welcome the GOP outreach.

“The problem is they think their problem is only outreach,” Elleithee said. “I think there is a fundamental disconnect between the Republican Party and these communities that they now claim that they want to do outreach to. You cannot be serious about connecting with a community when your party is committed to making it more difficult for that community to vote, when your party — and leaders of your party — oppose fundamental legislation like the Civil Rights Act” and voting rights legislation.

In Louisiana, Democrats started staffing up this spring, setting up regional field offices in Alexandria, Lafayette, Monroe, Shreveport and six other places. The effort includes paid staffers and hundreds of volunteers, said Kirstin Alvanitakis, communications director for the Louisiana Democratic Party.

Democrats have also turned to church leaders and set up a program called “Hope to Vote.”

“We’re making an appeal to folks, talking about what’s at stake in this election, but we’re also making an appeal talking about the importance of voting and the history surrounding voting, particularly in the South and particularly here in Louisiana,” Alvanitakis said. “That’s all still very relevant to a lot of people down here.”

Democrats have always reached out to black voters in Louisiana, but the party launched a bigger get-out-the-vote effort earlier than usual to counter the millions of dollars spent on attack ads against Landrieu, Alvanitakis said.

“It’s important for us to get out there and respond with the facts,” she said.

But Morris said it may be difficult for both parties, particularly Republicans, to woo black voters without a more coherent message on issues such as immigration.

“They cannot do anything but mobilize,” Morris said of GOP efforts. “Democrats need to thank God for some Republican initiatives. I don’t even know if (President Barack) Obama would have been elected in 2012 without Republican help. Out of the blue, they did the one thing they could do to get black voters to turn out, which is they attacked basic voting rights.”

He said the Democratic Party, which has lost white voters for decades, must boost minority voter turnout.

“They have assumed, maybe naively, that that has been accomplished, simply by having black candidates and in this case a black in the White House,” he said.